"The threat to our democracy is severe", says Louise Mensch

Conservative MP Louise Mensch has called on the Government to launch a review into the local press amid fears its decline poses a “severe” threat to democracy.

At a Westminster debate on the state of the local press Mensch reiterated her calls for the Government to introduce more subsidies and tax advantages for local newspapers to create a “level playing field”.

"The threat to our local democracy is severe,” she said. “It is often only the local press that will hold an incumbent member of Parliament or a local council to account, because only the local press and only local people really care."